Tomorrow, 25th October, at Milan’s Università Cattolica, Father Andrew Bertie, the prince and grand master of the sovereign military order of the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta (smom) since 1988, will receive the ‘Matteo Ricci’ international award, promoted by the Faculty of Political Science. “Father Andrew Bertie reads the award in his high functions, offices and obligations, proved, over these years at the head of the Order of Malta, to have total devotion to the values of solidarity and the promotion of the human being, in conjunction with extremely high professional standards”. On the occasion of the award-giving ceremony, Bertie will hold a lectio magistralis about “The Order of Malta: solidarity as a bridge between the West and the East”. The ceremony will be attended by the head of Milan’s Università Cattolica, Lorenzo Ornaghi, and the dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Alberto Quadrio Curzio. The sovereign military order of the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, a non-clerical religious order of the Catholic Church since 1113, runs many hospitals, medical centres, outpatients’ surgeries, rescue teams, foundations and specialist facilities.
